This invention relates generally to automobile top constructions, and more particularly to a releasable or demountable attachment construction for detachably securing the sheet material of automobile tops to the top portion of an automobile body.
In the past a number of different arrangements have been proposed and produced for releasably securing, for example, a convertible top to an automobile body. Conventional convertible top constructions typically employ cooperable seal strips, one of which was permanently secured to the automobile body while the other was mounted at the edge of the sheet of convertible top material. The two strips were adapted for mutual abutting engagement, being held in place by multiple clamps which had manually-operable levers carried by and concealed beneath the forward edge of the convertible top.
While many of such constructions operated in a generally satisfactory manner, problems were found to occur, especially after a prolonged period of operation. Where the seal strips were under continual tension, there was a pronounced tendency for one or both members to become warped and undergo aging deformation. When this occurred, the engagement of the two strips did not constitute a tight seal, this giving rise to water leakage and also air leakage. The latter frequently resulted in annoying drafts inside the vehicle, as well as creating objectionable "wind noise" resulting from air rushing past the leakage points between the strips. In addition, very often the clamps associated with such prior convertible tops were difficult or awkward to operate, and were prone to breakage or malfunction, such conditions sometimes rendering the convertible top unusable since it would fly backward suddenly as the vehicle was being driven.
In addition, such arrangements were found to be costly to manufacture and produce. In spite of the high manufacturing costs, the performance and ease of operation of these prior arrangements frequently left something to be desired.
Still other convertible top arrangements employed canvas tops having at their peripheries a multiplicity of snap-type fasteners which could be releasably secured to cooperable fasteners on the automobile body. This has been used in the past in the class of vehicle known as "rugged-terrain". While the installation or removal of the tops was a fairly routine matter, the seal provided between the canvas top and the vehicle body was usually not especially good, resulting again in both leakage of water and air, and undesirable "wind noise".
Additionally, prior convertible tops were especially susceptible to leakage resulting from wind-driven rain or snow under certain circumstances, as when the vehicle is being driven directly into a head wind. The velocity of air travelling past the car can be as high as 90-100 miles per hour or more, depending on the speed of the vehicle and the velocity of the wind. Optimally, convertible top constructions are designed to withstand the stresses imposed by such high winds, with freedom from tearing and minimal likelihood of permitting undesirable air and water leakage, but in many cases these objectives have not been attained.
Generally, no prior devices to my knowledge were produced or were available to enable the interchanging of tops, as for example, from a convertible top to a solid or rigid top and vice versa. That is, there was lacking any kind of attachment construction which would be adaptable for use with demountable automobile tops, whether these were of the convertible foldable type or else of the rigid, non-folding type.